Cargaa Cult

In many respects, Nervoso had created an African take on techno. Where Detroit innovators forced disco into repetitive machine loops, Nervoso had done the same with Angolan rhythms, creating mighty, trance-inducing locked grooves. He quickly became the most in-demand local DJ.

It was around this time that a local teenager called Marlon Silva started hanging around Nervoso's parties. He met him at a friend's house party in 2004 and was enthralled by the older DJ's style. Block party convention stated that DJs should stick to a playlist of Angolan pop and American r'n'b, but Nervoso was ripping up the rule book and ramping the party with his banging, skeletal productions. Marlon, who was already dabbling in DJing himself under the name Marfox (a reference to his constant playing of Nintendo's Star Fox game) decided to do the same. He got hold of a copy of Fruity Loops and got Nervoso to show him the ropes.

"Nervoso was the entry point," he remembers as we walk the sun-baked streets of Quinta do Mocho. "After Nervoso the sound started being accepted in different neighbourhoods, and each generation has opened the way to the next to be free to play their own productions in their DJ sets."